Crazy thought: Baseball's pace of play is just fine, despite what you might've heard.

Forget about those proposals for pitch clocks, a new strike zone, eliminating the four-pitch intentional walk or even shortening games to seven innings. None of them is necessary to improve the game, and they all miss a key point that's a big part of baseball's beauty and popularity as a spectator sport: Baseball games are great for multitasking.

Don't like the down time during games? Then do other things while you watch — like baseball fans have always done. So what if games are slow? This isn't a crisis. This is just baseball.

Astute fans have long known to embrace the pace. (Hey, that could be hashtag: #EmbraceThePace.)

Game's not zipping along? Fine. Get a snack, iron a shirt, tweet, find that article you keep meaning to read, check on another game, work out, do your homework, catch up on email, do your taxes, do, well, anything you want. Baseball allows it. It's made for it. We know this. We've always known this. Why is this a big deal?

Baseball doesn't require exclusivity. It offers an open relationship. Taking advantage doesn't make you an adulterous fan, just a shrewd one.

Baseball doesn't require our complete attention 100 percent of the time. There are plenty of stretches when nothing of note happens: A pitcher doesn't like the ball, so he tosses it in for a new one. A batter breaks his bat, so the bat boy brings him another one. The pitcher and catcher can't get together on signs, so they call time out to talk about it.

Not to mention pitching changes, replay reviews and 14-pitch at-bats in the fourth inning that produce 10 foul balls and end with a grounder to second. Add it all up and you've got a lot of dead time. But. That's. OK. If nothing else, it makes exciting plays that explode out of that dead time all the more thrilling: a standup triple, an inside-the-park home run, a diving catch.

Here's the thing: Fans don't usually complain that games are too long, as long as they're entertained. And baseball itself is entertaining. That's why we like it. But baseball was never meant to be a fast-paced affair.

Generally speaking, even most fans attending games, if they're being honest, want the experience to last as long as possible, whether a scoreless tie or a slugfest. That's probably true for a lot of fans watching on TV, too. We definitely know that's true of the season itself, as fans love to long for baseball when it's not on, to wax poetic about how much they miss it and how it warms the soul and makes life better. That's because, for fans, any baseball is good baseball. Which is to say, baseball is always good, no matter how long it takes.

The game's deliberate pace is not a detriment, folks. It's an asset. Embrace it.